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Topic: New Orleans' French Quarter (Read 12842 times)

I was in Baton Rouge for 2 weeks on business, and I spent a weekend in New Orleans. Unfortunately I wasn't able to take as many pictures as I would have liked, but I did get to capture the French Quarter and some of the surrounding areas.

The French Quarter was amazing and full of activity...but places like the Lower 9th Ward and Holy Cross looked as if the hurricane had just hit recently. When I was walking around things were great in the French Quarter, but after crossing Canal Street and heading about 1 block into the CBD area things got a little creepy and deserted. In a nut shell, the French Quarter was great and the rest was hit or miss...mainly miss. Enjoy the French Quarter.

I head down there about once a year (gf's family and all) and it is one of my favorite places in the world. So much street activity at all times of day. Hope you had a chance to hit a good restaurant for dinner.

interesting that the put the cars from the St. Charles Street line on the Canal line.

I think most of the St. Charles cars stayed high and dry through all the flooding, but much of their route was trashed by fallen trees and wrecked catenary. The newer, replica cars for the waterfront line and Canal Street, on the other hand, were nearly submerged and completely ruined and will have to be rebuilt before they can return to service.

interesting that the put the cars from the St. Charles Street line on the Canal line.

I think most of the St. Charles cars stayed high and dry through all the flooding, but much of their route was trashed by fallen trees and wrecked catenary. The newer, replica cars for the waterfront line and Canal Street, on the other hand, were nearly submerged and completely ruined and will have to be rebuilt before they can return to service.

thanks for confirming. I thought I read that, but hadn't really paid attention.

I love it when people come into a message board and immediately begin to mix it up. I mean, Jesus, at least say hello! Do you walk into a room full of strangers, pick a random woman, and tell her she's fat? - buildingcincinnati

Looks awesome. I'll be down there in two weeks, so these pics definitely have me excited for the trip.

Ever been? you're in for a treat!

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Looks awesome. I'll be down there in two weeks, so these pics definitely have me excited for the trip.

Ever been? you're in for a treat!

Only in terms of food options.

You think so? I thought New Orleans was awesome! So much, I put it on my places I wouldn't mind living.

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I can see how some people would not find NO endlessly interesting, but there is certainly much to see outside the French Quarter. In fact, I would say that the FQ is not the most interesting part of New Orleans.

I am no NO expert but know enough to recommend long walks on Magazine St. or St. Charles Ave. or visits to the big parks or unusual cemeteries. Since it's still partly shut down (and since it's not summer), you can't do it now, but I'd also recommend riding the St. Charles streetcar from the end of the line all the way into the middle of town on a summer night.

There are also some really impressive off-Quarter neighborhoods. Two I have walked around in a lot are the Marigny and the Garden District.

Even the beat-down parts of New Orleans and its elaborate drainage facilities are interesting, though, and the more you know about its nearly 300-year history, the more interesting you will find the place to be, because, in this place, the stories of the place almost outdo the place itself. It is also strange to be in a city whose existence was all but suspended for more than a month only a few years ago.

I am no NO expert but know enough to recommend long walks on Magazine St. or St. Charles Ave. or visits to the big parks or unusual cemeteries. Since it's still partly shut down (and since it's not summer), you can't do it now, but I'd also recommend riding the St. Charles streetcar from the end of the line all the way into the middle of town on a summer night.

There are also some really impressive off-Quarter neighborhoods. Two I have walked around in a lot are the Marigny and the Garden District.

I will say that Magazine Street was pretty amazing (sorry no pics). I also would have loved to check out the Garden District in New Orleans, but didn't have time. I'm sure there is more to see and appreciate, just not widespread enough I guess.

I can see how some people would not find NO endlessly interesting, but there is certainly much to see outside the French Quarter. In fact, I would say that the FQ is not the most interesting part of New Orleans.

I am no NO expert but know enough to recommend long walks on Magazine St. or St. Charles Ave. or visits to the big parks or unusual cemeteries. Since it's still partly shut down (and since it's not summer), you can't do it now, but I'd also recommend riding the St. Charles streetcar from the end of the line all the way into the middle of town on a summer night.

There are also some really impressive off-Quarter neighborhoods. Two I have walked around in a lot are the Marigny and the Garden District.

Even the beat-down parts of New Orleans and its elaborate drainage facilities are interesting, though, and the more you know about its nearly 300-year history, the more interesting you will find the place to be, because, in this place, the stories of the place almost outdo the place itself. It is also strange to be in a city whose existence was all but suspended for more than a month only a few years ago.

I've taken the line out to the Garden District. It's hot..no A/C and I have flashbacks of the old shaker rapid as I self basted like a pig on a spit! Riding the train to the end was painful. On the way back to the CBD, I got off went to Audubon Park, which is/was very nice. However, I didn't like the neighborhoods, street or homes going south from Magazine. I thought I would explore since neighborhoods like that usually have great finds...but I'll be damned. It's straight up 'hood.

Done city park. It was not very interesting. The neighborhoods north of Rampart street reminded me of the bad East Cleveland side of Forest Hills park.

Too be honest, not many people, venture outside the FQ when they go to NoLa.

The first time I went to New Orleans I was shocked by the severity and extent of the poverty and surprised by how nondescript so much of the city was. Miles of dull 1970's apartment complexes and strip malls. I remember driving around the pulbic housing areas being stared at like an alien. Also the French Quarter or at least Burboun St. was playing all the same top 40 music as college bars nationwide.

New Orleans is a great place to visit, but I am always struck with how nasty some of the neighborhoods are (pre-Katrina). On the plus side the French Quarter is a great place to party and it is a city where you can really feel the history. It has a definite vibe. Great photos by the way - I have always liked the shots from the narrow streets of the Quarter peeking into the financial district.

I did take a trolley tour one time, and all the statues with the soldiers on horses have a meaning. Something like the front, right leg in the air meant they died in battle, and the left in the air meant they went on to greater glory. Kind of mundane but interesting. I also remember the first time I went with my family and was very young - that was the first time I saw women swinging out of windows in the "clubs". One of the ladies with pasties invited me in for a look, and my mother pulled me away pretty quickly. An odd memory that has stuck with me for a long time.

You think so? I thought New Orleans was awesome! So much, I put it on my places I wouldn't mind living.

I'm not a big fan of southern cities. although NoLa and Miami are unique because of demographics.

I think the restaurants in NoLa are great. reasonably priced. However, IMO, the city itself lacks broad appeal outside of the FQ.

Uptown and the Garden District are certainly appealing (if not equally) with the French Quarter. Though New Orleans' problem is that the "ghetto looking" areas ARE quite close to the main attractive neighborhoods (projects right next door to the Superdome) and thus your impression is almost Detroit Syndrome (no specific side of ghetto ala Cleveland's eastside or Dayton's westside; just ghetto in many sections of the city).

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I love it when people come into a message board and immediately begin to mix it up. I mean, Jesus, at least say hello! Do you walk into a room full of strangers, pick a random woman, and tell her she's fat? - buildingcincinnati

Uptown and the Garden District are certainly appealing (if not equally) with the French Quarter. Though New Orleans' problem is that the "ghetto looking" areas ARE quite close to the main attractive neighborhoods (projects right next door to the Superdome) and thus your impression is almost Detroit Syndrome (no specific side of ghetto ala Cleveland's eastside or Dayton's westside; just ghetto in many sections of the city).

I disagree. Off the main drag, its as you state, the city is straight up ghetto. That goes back to my point I've made in other city threads. People say they are going to "new orleans" but they are really going - airport to the FQ/CBD. Same as when people say they are going to Miami. Most are really going to Miami Beach.

Not to go on and on about it, but, yes, I agree, that New Orleans may be limited in its ability to supply a visitor with an urbane city experience, and I absolutely agree that so much-- maybe almost all-- of what has been built in the city in the past 50 years, including in the French Quarter and CBD, is just awful at worst or nondescript at best.

The Lakeview neighborhood is one example. It was a middle-class neighborhood for the most part, I think, and mostly postwar, and, when I was looking at the neighborhood one year after Katrina, it was not the destroyed architecture that was chilling. What really got to me was all the evidence of neighborhood life that had just been brought to a halt. It was just an everyday kind of place, like Cleveland's West Park or something, that was of no interest to outsiders like me until after disaster struck.

And then of course there are all the cultural overlays and undercurrents that set New Orleans apart, and their stories go so much deeper than their presentations in the tourist zones. Much of the spectacle that tourists see during Mardi Gras or at other times is rooted in and still generated in those rundown parts of town.

There's a line in an Adrienne Rich poem that goes something like "Yes, poets are born in wasted tracts like these," and I have always liked that line because it could apply to the worst poverty-stricken ghetto or to the most garish well-off suburban subdivision. In defense of New Orleans, I do think that, despite its many, many woes and shortcomings, you really do get a feeling that it has the ability to generate poets and musicians and other kinds of artists.

I also don't mean to say that I think the poverty of New Orleans is charming or irreversible. It's just part of the long story of the place, and I think that New Orleans provides clear evidence that a lot of the important work over time has been done by people who don't have much to go on materially.

Uptown and the Garden District are certainly appealing (if not equally) with the French Quarter. Though New Orleans' problem is that the "ghetto looking" areas ARE quite close to the main attractive neighborhoods (projects right next door to the Superdome) and thus your impression is almost Detroit Syndrome (no specific side of ghetto ala Cleveland's eastside or Dayton's westside; just ghetto in many sections of the city).

I disagree. Off the main drag, its as you state, the city is straight up ghetto. That goes back to my point I've made in other city threads. People say they are going to "new orleans" but they are really going - airport to the FQ/CBD. Same as when people say they are going to Miami. Most are really going to Miami Beach.

I never disagreed with that notion EXCEPT for the fact that you said "the city itself lacks broad appeal outside of the FQ" which I completely disagree with as it has the beautiful Garden District and the interesting Uptown. But overall, I do agree that New Orleans almost has that southern Detroit presence.

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I love it when people come into a message board and immediately begin to mix it up. I mean, Jesus, at least say hello! Do you walk into a room full of strangers, pick a random woman, and tell her she's fat? - buildingcincinnati